The first very bad job hunting habits were all about how to present yourself to the rest of the world.
The next thing is to make sure you never do anything uncomfortable. Never ever go outside your comfort zone.
To get a job you’ve never had before, you must do something you’ve never done before. Which will make you feel uncomfortable. In fact, the more uncomfortable you are, the more you will improve yourself.
Be aware you may need to make a networking phone call to a manager you’ve never met before who works at your target employer.
Ouch! I bet the thought of making a cold call like that makes a visit to the dentist feel real easy.
Taking new actions will more than likely fail the first couple of times.
Maybe.
Remember the first time you tried walking and crashed headlong into the coffee table.
Oh you don’t? What a surprise. Guess what, once you overcome your fear of cold calling the manager, you won’t remember that you couldn’t do it either.
Nobody likes failure (or smashed-up furniture) but did you or your parents give up?
No.
Failure was simply a stop along the way. Giving up was not an option.
If the fear of failure is keeping you from making networking phone calls to strangers, that’s your inner two-year-old trying to protect your ego.
But you are not two-years old, are you?
The longer you avoid taking uncomfortable actions in your job search, (and in your life) the more likely you will experience serious problems, like bankruptcy or a stress-induced illness.
No action is an action. But taking no action is infinitely harder to fix than actions that were a mistake.
Put differently, the rejection you feel if someone hangs up on you is fleeting and intangible. But the pain of losing your home after the unemployment checks run out will be long lasting and very real.
In light of that, wouldn’t it be better to make just one more phone call today than you did yesterday?
If you’re stuck on how to network, pick up the phone, call the 5 most-connected people you know, and ask them how the found their last three jobs.
Be ready to tell them what job you’re looking for (see Habit 1 above). And ask them whom they would call if they were in your shoes.
This exercise will give you 15 job-search success stories, in addition to a couple more names to call. Repeat as necessary.
Now, go out and make your own luck!
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This job hunting post was adapted from content provided to by my good friends Kevin Donlin and David Perry, co-creators of the Guerrilla Job Search System.
Kevin and David have been interviewed by CNN, New York Times, Fortune magazine, and the Christian Science Monitor about their method to finding a job.
Get a free audio from Kevin and David on how to get your job search into high gear
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